The Black Jacobins Reader

The C. L. R. James Archives

by Charles Forsdick (Editor), Christian Høgsbjerg (Editor)

Containing a wealth of new scholarship and rare primary documents, The Black Jacobins Reader provides a comprehensive analysis of C. L. R. James's classic history of the Haitian Revolution. In addition to considering the book's literary qualities and its role in James's emergence as a writer and thinker, the contributors discuss its production, context, and enduring importance in relation to debates about decolonization, globalization, postcolonialism, and the emergence of neocolonial modernity. The Reader also includes the reflections of activists and novelists on the book's influence and a transcription of James's 1970 interview with Studs Terkel.
Contributors. Mumia Abu-Jamal, David Austin, Madison Smartt Bell, Anthony Bogues, John H. Bracey Jr., Rachel Douglas, Laurent Dubois, Claudius K. Fergus, Carolyn E. Fick, Charles Forsdick, Dan Georgakas, Robert A. Hill, Christian Hogsbjerg, Selma James, Pierre Naville, Nick Nesbitt, Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Matthew Quest, David M. Rudder, Bill Schwarz, David Scott, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Matthew J. Smith, Studs Terkel
"

Genres: History, Nonfiction

465 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 6, 2017

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hit and miss depending upon the essay. Part I is very interesting with short contributions from James' widow and other figures. Nesbitt's chapter is fascinating for a new theory of the French Revolution, repudiating the traditional bourgeois revolutionary thesis in favor of viewing the Jacobins government as a radical intellectual one allied with the sans-culottes. Nielsen's essay is a beautiful tribute to the Institute of the Black World, woefully understudied and gone far too soon. The worst essay is easily Matthew Quest's, nearly unreadable ultra-left nonsense.